Keith Wassung
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- Feb 5, 2006
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Lets say you are the owner of an independant hardware store. You have ten full time and five part time employees. Business is good, but predictable. One day you experience a sudden increase in customers wanting to buy your merchandise. You dont know where they are coming from, but it is at least a 40% increase in customers. Your one cashier cannot handle it and your two customer service reps on the floor are swamped......what do you do? do you immediately run out and hire more people, do you knock out a wall to increase your square footage? of course not--hiring and training employees is expensive as is re-modeling and expansion. Not only are these things expensive, but you dont know how long this new business is going to last--it would be stupid to invest in new employees and additional square footage if this is a one day increase.
So what you do? You make internal adaptations--you set up a folding table with a calculator and a cashbox and that becomes your second register. you call out three guys from the stock room and turn them into customer service associates on the spot, you call in your part-timers if possible. In other words, you take what you already have, move it around to meet the increased demands. You cannot do this forever, but it works in the short term.
Your body works in a similar manner. When a demand is placed on the body ( ie resistance training) your body will FIRST respond with internal re-configuration and usually this is in the form of neural adaption. Your body will actually change its nervous system around in order to meet the demands placed on it--Building muscle is expensive from a ****bolic standpoint and this is the last thing your body will do. In an attempt to preserve its resources, the body will invariably attempt to stop you, the soulful occupant of the body from inflicting any further load or demand on it.
So what does this have to do with rep ranges? Well if you stay within a set rep range, then it will be much easier for the body to adapt, which means it gets better at stopping your progress because it knows what to expect. When you occasionally change up your rep ranges, its harder for the body to adjust for it and it has no choice but to make ****bolic changes. REMEMBER, when you place a load on the body, it resonds, but it responds in order to be "prepared" for the next time...if you come back next time with the same load, it it much easier for it to inhibit you and this is why even the best programs, that advocate the same rep ranges, go stale after awhile.
A lifter who is primarily lifting for "strength" should focus on lower reps, but then would be very wise to occasionally venture in the middle and higher rep ranges. The bodybuilder type would be best to stick to higher rep ranges, but would be wise to occasionally hit the low reps
I know that conventional internet lifting wisdom says that higher reps dont build strength, but I disagree, if you are doing a given weight for ten reps and then 6 weeks later you are doing an additional 20lbs for ten reps, then you have gotten stronger---now how it translates to a one rep max is another story--I believe it will increase the one rep max, either directly or indirectly and in most cases it gives you a greater foundation or base to grow that one rep max from. When I was competing, I did reps as high as 30 and many laughed at me and said it was a waste, but those occasional higher reps gave me increased stamina and muscular endurance which meant I could train a heck of a lot harder when doing the lower reps. One way or another it helped the bottom line.
The key word is to "occasionally" leave your normal rep range. maybe every 4th workout or so. You will get a lot more growth longevity out of a 5x5 if you occasionally mix it up with other rep ranges. Just like a football team that has a great running game, will get more out of their ground game with the occasional pass play--if all they ever do is run, it makes it much easer for the defense to shut them down--same thing is true of your body.
keith
So what you do? You make internal adaptations--you set up a folding table with a calculator and a cashbox and that becomes your second register. you call out three guys from the stock room and turn them into customer service associates on the spot, you call in your part-timers if possible. In other words, you take what you already have, move it around to meet the increased demands. You cannot do this forever, but it works in the short term.
Your body works in a similar manner. When a demand is placed on the body ( ie resistance training) your body will FIRST respond with internal re-configuration and usually this is in the form of neural adaption. Your body will actually change its nervous system around in order to meet the demands placed on it--Building muscle is expensive from a ****bolic standpoint and this is the last thing your body will do. In an attempt to preserve its resources, the body will invariably attempt to stop you, the soulful occupant of the body from inflicting any further load or demand on it.
So what does this have to do with rep ranges? Well if you stay within a set rep range, then it will be much easier for the body to adapt, which means it gets better at stopping your progress because it knows what to expect. When you occasionally change up your rep ranges, its harder for the body to adjust for it and it has no choice but to make ****bolic changes. REMEMBER, when you place a load on the body, it resonds, but it responds in order to be "prepared" for the next time...if you come back next time with the same load, it it much easier for it to inhibit you and this is why even the best programs, that advocate the same rep ranges, go stale after awhile.
A lifter who is primarily lifting for "strength" should focus on lower reps, but then would be very wise to occasionally venture in the middle and higher rep ranges. The bodybuilder type would be best to stick to higher rep ranges, but would be wise to occasionally hit the low reps
I know that conventional internet lifting wisdom says that higher reps dont build strength, but I disagree, if you are doing a given weight for ten reps and then 6 weeks later you are doing an additional 20lbs for ten reps, then you have gotten stronger---now how it translates to a one rep max is another story--I believe it will increase the one rep max, either directly or indirectly and in most cases it gives you a greater foundation or base to grow that one rep max from. When I was competing, I did reps as high as 30 and many laughed at me and said it was a waste, but those occasional higher reps gave me increased stamina and muscular endurance which meant I could train a heck of a lot harder when doing the lower reps. One way or another it helped the bottom line.
The key word is to "occasionally" leave your normal rep range. maybe every 4th workout or so. You will get a lot more growth longevity out of a 5x5 if you occasionally mix it up with other rep ranges. Just like a football team that has a great running game, will get more out of their ground game with the occasional pass play--if all they ever do is run, it makes it much easer for the defense to shut them down--same thing is true of your body.
keith
